Butuan City folk revisit tree planting site at
Mount Mayapay
By Richell P. Bongato
BUTUAN CITY, June 28 (PIA) -- About 400
volunteers from the national government agencies and private sector trooped to
Mount Mayapay in this city on Wednesday in what the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources (DENR-13) coined as “ Balik Tanaw sa Mayapay” to
highlight the celebration of the Arbor Day on 25th of June of each year.
As early as 4:00 am, the volunteers most of whom
are state workers have assembled at Libertad Sports Complex to get a ride that
will take them to the 675-meter-above sea level planting site amidst a gloomy
weather condition. The state workers also brought each with them a tree
seedling of narra to either plant them to a new ground or replenish those dead
seedlings.
DENR-13 Regional Executive Director Nonito M.
Tamayo said “this year’s Arbor Day celebration revisits the planting sites in
the 375-hectare area for rehabilitation at Mount Mayapay since the program
started on the year 2008. The purpose of revisit is to determine high survival
rate of the 8,888 mahogany seedlings that were planted on the year and left at
the care of the CENRO Nasipit personnel."
The Regional Technical Director for Forest
Management Services Marites M. Ocampo was also at hand to oversee the
activities.
“I am satisfied with my findings," Tamayo
said in his welcome remarks at the program before the start of the planting
rites held at a nursery center near the summit of Mt. Mayapay.
The seedlings that were planted 5 years ago have
grown to at least an average of 10 to 20-feet high, Tamayo said.
A decade from now, the people in Butuan City can
expect to see the fruits of their labors that put life into the once-denuded
Mount Mayapay. “Everyone appears excited looking forward on the day the brown
color of the mountain turning into green,” Tamayo said.
Arbor Day began in Nebraska City, Nebraska, USA
on April 10, 1872. An estimated one million seedlings were planted by the
people in that city on that day. Since then, it became a yearly ritual in the
United States to celebrate Arbor Day with tree planting. In fact, it was
declared a holiday in Nebraska to give the people time to think of the value of
trees and caring for them as well. (FEA/DENR-13/PIA-Caraga)
